Wonder Valley, California, in the heart of the Mojave Desert, is a rural community of artists, musicians, and other desert dwellers. Visit the Palms Restaurant, the Glass Outhouse Gallery, and the Wonder Valley Community Center. Visit the beautiful Pinto and Bullion mountains. Minutes from Joshua Tree National Park and the Gateway to the Mojave Preserve.

The article was written by By Ivy Pochoda for the Decemeber 19, 2017 issue. Ms. Pochoda is the author of the book Wonder Valley.

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"Except for a bar and a used bookstore that’s rarely open, there were—and are— no amenities in Wonder Valley. There are no stoplights or streetlights, nothing to punctuate the night sky. After dark, dogs howl and coyotes yip in anticipation of a kill.

"The landscape is monotonous — a flat and almost ghostly expanse of scrubby desert whose most impressive feature is the tenacity of the flora, fauna and human beings who survive there. But there’s an unsettling sort of beauty in the challenges Wonder Valley presents, especially after dark. For night is when this far corner of the Mojave gave me its odd reassurance that it was still possible to go somewhere unexpected, that it wasn’t only O.K. to be lost, it was somehow necessary."